Woohoo! Biking to school and loving it

07 Sep 2007

Yesterday represents the first time that my kids and I biked to school. As a long time advocate of biking whenever possible, this was really cool to get my 8 and 6 year olds out in the fast lane–well, 8 mph is not exactly fast.

The skinny:

1 mountain bike for Dad (Gary Fisher Marlin 1999)

1 trail-a-bike for the little kid (Adams Trail-a-Bike)

1 mountain bike for the big kid (Raleigh Rowdy)

~30 minutes of ride time

~9 mph average speed

4.8 miles with kids

5 miles to work without kids

(Pictures to follow, I forgot to take one in the rush to get out the door.)
Keeton did awesome on the bike lanes of North Portland. The Columbia Blvd. trail leaves a little to be desired at a couple of spots, but it was safe and traveled well. Mishya is now officially over her fears of biking. (I think the trailer was just a little too much loss of control as of late–the trail-a-bike is a much better fit for a 6-year old.)

My only complaints are that the coupling on the trail-a-bike was having a squeak-a-thon–it has been checked, it is not part of the recall from a year ago–and that the mountain bike is way heavy compared to my usual aluminum road steed. If I do this regularly, which is the plan, I think I’m going to need to switch to some lighter tires. I love the glass-crunching-ride-with-abandon fell of the Specialized Armadillo Crossroads I currently have on the Marlin, but man the tires feel heavy. I have to find something that will give me the top end speed of the slicks I used to ride with the puncture protection. I can then save the crossroads for trail riding–which I don’t get to do that often.

Two final issues with riding bikes to school that is 4+ miles from home. I can’t do pick up, so Diana had to swing by and grab the bikes with a car in the afternoon and Keeton and I crossed-wires regarding his helmet. I hope the helmet is sitting at school, but if not we are going to need to get him a new one before we can ride again. Darn.